Annette Beard
The hardest challenge champion runner 16-year-old Shaed Cates faces is finding time to "just hang out" with friends -- to do the things other teen-aged boys do.
Junior high girls champion Lauren Wright agrees. She spends her free time training instead of hanging out with friends.
Cates runs five days a week, usually racking up 40 to 60 miles each week covering hilly terrain as well as using the track at Blackhawk Stadium. A sophomore at Pea Ridge High School, Cates won fifth place in the state cross country meet this past weekend after earning the 1-4A conference champion the previous week.
Running five days a week and competing on weekends doesn't allow much down time nor time for spending the night with buddies.
"I use the Pea Ridge Battlefield," Cates said, and usually get in at least 10 miles a day. "I'm really trying hard... I do better at long distance."
Cates said he tries to get at least eight, sometimes 10 hours of sleep a night and knows he must take care of himself both before and after running a meet. He said he is careful to eat well and to warm up before a meet and cool down after.
"I want to do a half marathon sometime before the year ends," Cates said.
The son of Donald and Misty Cates, Shaed has been at Pea Ridge for three years now, coming from Bentonville. He said his mother teaches school in Bentonville. His younger brother is in sixth grade and wants to run, too.
He began running in the fourth grade when he ran in the Bentonville Gold Rush 5K.
"I've always done it. My dad runs. I knew he did one marathon and I thought that was cool," Cates said. He said he usually runs in the afternoons but often selects mornings during the summer before the day gets too hot. He also runs with a club team, Triple Threat from the Bentonville/Rogers area.
"It's like in the summer after track. It's just an after track way to stay in shape in different places," he said. "They have a lot of older members and do triathlons. There are about 12 kids my age in the club."
"Always try your hardest and never give up," he said would be his advise to anyone wanting to compete. "It's not easy to do, but you can do it if you just try really hard."
Lauren Wright, 12, also started running in the fourth grade. She said she was inspired by her aunt, Terri Higgins, who is a runner.
The daughter of Brian and Katie Wright of Pea Ridge, Wright also plays basketball and volleyball and runs track.
"I thought running would help me with my other sports to stay in shape," the Junior High girls conference champion said.
"I run with my team, we do road runs and timed runs four days a week," Wright said. "I have basketball and we run quite a bit in that.
"I've learned to cut down my sugar a lot and drink more water, especially on the day and week of the race. I get up early," she said, and uses her "free time" to train. "Instead of hanging out with friends, I run to try to get better."
Wright said she likes the last stretch in a long race.
"It's where you're just pushing as hard as you can," she said. "I like seeing my time."
Sports on 11/16/2016